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Cool but Deficient...

DmC
is the reboot of the Devil May Cry series by Ninja Theory. It is
intended to direct a franchise in a new direction and gain a broader
audience. I had no cons about the ideas behind the revitalizing of the
series & its mythos, but merely with the execution of the ideas.

PRESENTATION:
Very Good. The artistic story telling is fantastic in the game, as well
as the in game text to amplify some action scenes. Menu has framerate
issues but well laid out and simple to see.

GRAPHICS: Good.
Environment immerses the player into it and framerate is fluid to follow
the action. The game overuses the orange / red color palette as well as
the green / blue one which tends to saturate the world you are in after
a couple of hours into the game.

SOUND: Very Good. The soundtrack
in the game is great and it delivers the theme of the game quite
nicely. The voice acting is well done too, you can tell the brothers
apart when they speak but also sense their relation...Mundus also
delivered an impact performance. Sound effects are also very good but at
times overwhelmed by the soundtrack.

GAMEPLAY: Good. Heavily
hindered by the level design, the gameplay mechanics are seamless, very
well rounded and easy to implement. The amount of combos stretches as
far as your imagination can, switching between Devil & Angel weapons
is fast and fluid and the controls are quick and responsive. The pacing
of the game is questionable for an action game, specially for one with
such a deep combo system. The camera is good and user controlled for the
most part and even pauses enemies from attacking you if they are off
screen. The Devil Trigger suspends enemies into the air this time around
while you inflict damage. As usual some health regenerates and there is
increased damage.

LEVEL DESIGN: Poor. This is where all the bad
spots of the game came back to. The traversal through the game is mainly
compromised by jumping. EVERYWHERE. It became tedious after seeing how
much it consisted to go through a level, and it broke the pacing of the
game considerably, since some areas there was just too much of it.
Overall Limbo is designed somewhere out of the Deconstructivism
movement, where things are broken parts of themselves and the pieces
make up an ugly whole. The best level design for me was the Disco level,
and something I'd revisit, weird boss and all. The environments turn
dull towards the end, slowing the adventure down. One of the Boss fights
implements the platforming quite well, and that probably was as far as
it should have been taken to make up the level design.

STORY:
Good. The new direction that they deviated the original storyline from
was well implemented. Dante and Vergil being sons of a Demon &
Angel, some type of anomaly that can extinguish evil is a believable
storyline to start from. The explaining of their origin was engaging as
well. The middle and ends of the plotline of the game however, are not.

BEASTIARY:
Very Poor. The enemies in DmC are not much for variety. Apparently
anywhere you go in Limbo the demons are pretty much the same. They have
different types of the same enemies, where ones are vulnerable to either
Angel or Demon weapons. Overall you will face upgraded versions of the
same enemies throughout the game. One in particular should have been a
boss because he was really cool to face, and his upgraded versions,
since the 5 & a half boss fights in the 20 level game are deficient
for an action game. They are mostly large, blob like figures instead of
the fearsome creatures prevalent in games of this genre. They are quite
the mixed bag & the fights consist of yes heavy PLATFORMING.

DIFFICULTY:
Easy. Accurate. I played the game on the Nephilim ( Hard ) difficulty
and I barely died, ever. The game difficulty seems just about right so
anyone can just pick this up and kick ass. Be aware that restarting a
checkpoint counts as a death in the game ( what? ) and the autosave
feature will NOT hold on to your items if you've used them and then died
( or restarted ).

LASTING APPEAL:

Players of the previous
games will most likely not favor this game too much. The story mode may
be good for one play through, but the excessive platforming may anger
God of War veterans as well as the lack of boss fights. Also being a
short adventure ( +/- 8 hours ) and the lack of the Vergil DLC at launch
to extend it, sadly is not enough to warrant a full retail purchase (
like I did ). I'd recommend holding off for God or War Ascension instead.